9/24/2008

Jacob Leibenluft, Slate: "Do it for the kids" has always been one of the most popular arguments in favor of environmentalism: Older people need to get their act together, or else it's the children who will suffer the environmental consequences. Indeed, in terms of what they buy and how they vote, younger Americans tend to be more eco-conscious than seniors, who are less likely than anyone else to believe that global warming is a man-made phenomenon. But here's the weird thing: In practice, it's the older folks who are better for the environment.In an effort to improve models of global warming, a team of researchers led by Brian O'Neill of the National Center for Atmospheric Research estimated what U.S. emissions would look like in two different cases: one in which the age structure of the population looked exactly the same as today's, and another where - as many demographers project - the percentage of Americans over 65 more than doubled.